CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County Schools officials said Tuesday they are confident classrooms will be ready by the start of the academic year next week as contractors continue efforts to clean sites of mold.
According to the school system, education staff has spotted visible mold at 11 schools.
Kanawha County Schools Executive Director of Maintenance Terry Hollandsworth said mold is an issue every summer because of multiple factors, specifically noting the schools’ HVAC systems as well as humidity.
“(Mold) needs moisture. Once you fix the moisture problem, then mold can’t grow. It needs food. Drywall, carpet, dirt, anything the mold can feed on,” he said.
School officials said mold was discovered at St. Albans, Nitro, Capital, Sissonville and George Washington high schools; East Bank Middle School; and Flinn, Bridge-Clendenin, Sharon Dawes and Alum Creek elementary schools. Crews also spotted mold in the Laidley Field locker rooms, which is used by Horace Mann Middle School.
Reaction to mold exposure can differ between people; some may have no reaction while others may suffer from symptoms including itchy eyes, stuffy nose and wheezing.
Hollandsworth said a school’s HVAC system brings outside air into the facility, which may be as high as 30 percent in some cases. While the outside air reduces the carbon dioxide in classrooms, it also means more humidity during wetter times of year.
Hollandsworth added this year’s mold problems have not been as bad as recent years because of early inspections that began in July.
“Last year, it kind of caught us by surprise. We didn’t realize how bad that it was,” he said.
Belfor Property Restoration and Astar Abatement & Insulation have been responsible for cleaning rooms, while Pinnacle Environmental conducts before- and after-cleaning testing for elevated mold levels.
Greg Pauley, assistant branch manager for Pinnacle Environmental’s West Virginia office, said people should know this is a fairly common problem.
“You can go out to almost any school system and walk through their schools and you’re going to find mold somewhere,” he said. “The whole goal is to make sure what’s inside is the same as outside, and that you don’t have elevated levels inside.”
While school officials spoke to reporters Tuesday, testing results from St. Albans High School were given to the school system, though the exact findings were not released. Crews with Astar Abatement & Insulation were at Bridge-Clendenin Elementary School on Tuesday for cleaning work. Testing still needs to be conducted at Sharon Dawes and Alum Creek elementary schools, as well as East Bank Middle School.
Crews are also planning to return to Flinn Elementary to clean to additional classrooms from the eight rooms originally treated.